


Singin' in the Rain

by SingMeloetta



Series: Lumiose High [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - High School, Assault, Gen, Musical References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-10 16:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11695296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingMeloetta/pseuds/SingMeloetta





	1. Chapter 1

Two weeks into September was Madison’s first favorite time of year; That was when Ms. Tailler announced their winter show. As she walked into the auditorium, she could feel the anticipation coming from absolutely everyone; Those who were usually in the cast, usually in the crew, even Ms. Tailler herself had a shine in her eyes which she got when she had a surprise in store. “Alright, children, gather around me, and give me a drum roll if you please!” The crowd of teenagers did as she said, with some banging on the stage floor with other hitting their now-reddening knees.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that this year’s winter musical is set to be none other than Singin’ in the Rain!” The obligatory chatter and whispering than filled the auditorium, and Madison and Lisia were no exceptions.  Madison’s eyes lit up, Lisia turning to smile and whisper with her. “Hey, your mom was in the movie of that, right? As Kathy?”

 

I nodded. “It was the first movie of hers I saw when I was little. I’ve always wanted to be in this and play Kathy myself, and that’s the movie I find myself always thinking of for comfort, but still...”

 

“I know you’re gonna do great no matter which role you get! Speaking of which, do you know that Uncle Wall isn’t in charge of the music for this show?”

 

“What? Why not?”

 

“He’s really confused about it, too. He says that the guitar teacher ousted him for some reason, as soon as they figured out which show they were gonna do.”

 

“Girls, you can audition for Kathy or Lina. Boys, you can choose between Cosmo or Don. Auditions will start two weeks from today! Break a leg!” With that, everyone left the auditorium to swarm the buses outside or get in their own cars and get home.

 

Three weeks later, the cast list went up, a mob of drama kids crowded around it whenever Madison passed by. So, she and Lisia checked back after school; They always had to check the list together; If one of them wasn't in school the day the list went up, the other would wait as long as they could before checking; Neither of them knew why they had gotten into the habit, both of them guessing that it started as kind of a comfort thing. Their two pairs of eyes scanned the list, each glowing when they noticed Lisia’s name under Kathy. “Congrats, Lissi!”

 

“Thanks! Honestly, though, you totally deserved to be Kathy. You sounded like you had that monologue down by heart, and I'm just hoping I can do your mother some justice. I still don’t know why they cast you as Lina, of all people, though. You’re her complete opposite.”

 

“Well, a role’s a role. Besides, this is my first time playing a villain, and I think it'll be fun!”

 

“I know, but the whole point of Lina is that she can’t sing. The whole point of you is that you can. Maybe it was a typo and they switched our names around.”

 

“Maybe you’re right, but even if they did, I wouldn’t take this from you, Lissi. In every show we're in together, you’ve always been cast as my right-hand woman. It’s time that you got a spotlight of your own!”

 

"Thanks, Mads. You're a good friend."

 

"Go get'em out there, Kathy."


	2. Chapter 2

It only took three days for everyone to settle in their roles enough so rehearsal could start. The principal cast was all introduced to their character’s chosen Pokémon partners, while the ensemble worked on the opening number. Madison was bonding with her partner, a Debutante trimmed-Furfrou when Ms. Tailler suddenly tapped Madison on the shoulder. “Mr. Page wants to go over the songs you’ll be in. He says he’s changing up the script a bit to give Lina more time to sing.”

 

“Oh. Alright. I mean, of course, I don’t mind singing more, but Lina-”

 

“I know, it’s an odd choice. But he’s the final say on all things music for the show, so there’s no point in trying to argue with him. Not like you would, mon chou.”

 

Taking in an uneasy breath, Madison slowly crept in, even after she had knocked. “Mr. Page, sir? You said you wanted to go over some script changes with me?” He was fiddling with a pack of cigarettes, trying to hide the box from her view as best as he could. His croaking voice clearly indicated that he’d been smoking before she’d come in, however, they both must’ve known that Madison was such a bundle of anxieties, nerves, and submissiveness that she’d never even think of bringing it up to her father. “Yup. You’re going to be singing a lot more than you would’ve, girly. Lina is supposed to be a showstopper. And what’s a showstopper if she only gets one song, right?”

 

“That makes sense.”

 

“Oh, and don’t think we’re done yet, girly. My job here is to make you into the most believable Lina the world has ever known. Of course, that means we start with your voice; I’m going to break it if you don’t mind…” An almost sinister-looking grin spread across his face, causing a slight look of panic on mine. _Should I tell anyone, or is he just playing with me or…_

 

Finally, Madison gathered some nerve and spoke to the teacher. “If I may ask, sir, what do you mean when you say you’re going to break my voice?”

 

“Well, you need to sound like Lina in order to properly become her, don’t you? And a big part of Lina is her awful voice. But we overachieve here at Lumiose High School, and so I want to bring you beyond awful, take your voice beyond the point of repair.”

 

“Sir, why do you want to do this? I mean, I know Lina’s not supposed to be a good singer by any means, but-”

 

“Get over yourself. I’ve heard my daughter talk about you and how you think you're all that. It’s all in the name of believability, girly, and I want to push you to your limit.”

 

“Alright, if you say so.” Madison held back rolling her eyes or perhaps using a larger amount of sarcasm. If her fear of this teacher ever had its highest point, this was it. _What are you doing!? You never roll your eyes at any adult, you should know better!_

 

He seemed to snap and snap back all within the span of a moment, looking like he was considering lunging at her in a fit of rage, but that ended up with his body quickly rejecting the idea. “Don’t question my ways, girly.”

 

“I’m sorry, sir. I won’t do it again, sir.”

 

“That’s fine, girly, as long as you don’t repeat your mistakes. Now, let me see what you can do. Singing-wise, I mean.” _What else could he have meant?_ Madison mentally cringed at the thoughts that were now circulating around in her mind.

 

She tried her best to sound as awful as she could to appease him, although he still didn't look impressed by the end of the ordeal. “That was okay, but we don’t want okay, we want awful; Mind-bendingly, nauseatingly awful. To help you out I’m going to have Misdreavus give you a little nudge in the right direction. When I come back, I expect you to be worse. Do I make myself clear, girly?”All Madison could do with the sudden change in his tone was shrink back in fear and give several small nods of her head until he closed the door.

 

She watched the Screech Pokémon as it looked back at her with a smirk, and then let out a soft but shrill sound that soon crescendoed into an ear-splitting screeching which felt like nails on a chalkboard. Madison quickly found that she had lost her ability to concentrate, she couldn’t even think about anything other than _that noise_ , the noise that was filling the room and bouncing back off of the walls, abusing her sense of sound constantly: A minute into this torture and she was forced to her knees because it had gotten too disorienting to stand up anymore. It was an odd feeling for her, the feeling of wanting to scream in agony, scream for someone, anyone to make the screeching go away, her feelings of desperation only growing when people passed by in the halls. Yet being unable to scream at all because the noise around you- this pain- was already deafening enough, and she didn’t want to make it even worse.

 

Finally, the door came open with an ugly squeak, and Mr. Page silenced his Ghost-type Pokémon. He didn’t show any signs of concern for Madison (despite her nearly losing consciousness) instead choosing to sit back down in his chair as she struggled to get back on her feet, needing to grab a nearby chair for balance. Even when she was up, he still showed no signs of remorse, going straight back into rehearsal mode “Now, let’s try this again, girly.”

 

She could hear her voice squeaking and cracking, and she wasn’t even bothering with vowel shape or diction anymore. She knew this wasn’t right, she wasn’t meant to do this, but she was too afraid of the noise coming back to even consider fixing it. "You wouldn't tell anyone about our practices, right? Especially after I worked so hard to push you for this role. Besides, you'll have plenty of time to show of your new skills while you're peforming right?"

"No, sir, I won't tell anyone what we've done, sir. I thank you for giving me this opportunity to perform."

The man smirked at her answer, fixing his sunglasses as he looked at the clock. “Your singing was much better this time. Alright, we’ll continue with this at our next rehearsal, and we’ll only be going into deeper practice techniques next time.”

 

Madison let out a sigh, half of relief and half of worry, as she left the guitar room and grouped back with Lisia and the others, getting to talk with them until she met with her father, who lead her back to the car, with the two of them sitting side by side. Though he had started their conversation with his typical “How was your rehearsal?” Her father’s voice boomed in her ears and she covered them instinctively, curling up into a little ball as best as she could despite the seatbelt in the way.

 

“Ma princesse, Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas? Es-tu froid?” It was at times like these where Augustine wished he wasn’t driving so he could warm her up and place a warm arm around her.

 

“S'il-vous-plait, ne parlez pas, ça fait mal.” She rushed out a cryptic explanation, all of her thoughts focused on wanting to immediately escape from the car and into a quiet place when they got home.


	3. Chapter 3

Her phone immediately chiming with a new message didn’t help matters either. Madison considered not even bothering with a response until she realized this might mean a chance to properly vent to whoever was on the other side of the chat.

 

Lissi: How did it go??? With mr. page???

 

Madison: Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s pretty creepy, actually.

 

Lissi: agreed

 

Madison: Can you keep a secret?

 

Lissi: sue

 

Lissi: *sure*

 

Madison: I think he might’ve tortured me today.

 

Lissi: :O  How?

 

Madison: With his Misdreavus. He left the room and ordered it to pretty much screech as loudly as possible until he came back, he said it would make me more “Lina-like.” I can’t even listen to anyone speak right now, it’s so loud.

Lissi: IS THAT EVEN LEGAL??? like, i’m pretty sure that’s actual torture… did you tell your dad? Mads, that could be a serious issue!!

 

Madison: He said he’d like for me to keep my mouth shut about his “secret training” until he gives me a signal, so that’s why I haven’t told my dad. He says he’s going to try something else on Wednesday, but he might make it even worse if he finds out that I told anyone.

 

Lissi: Mads, i need to tell uncle wall. If this goes on any longer, who knows what he’ll be able to get away with.

 

Madison: NO! You can’t tell anyone, Lissi. Please…

 

Lissi: fine. But if it gets any worse, tell me okay?

 

Madison: Deal.

 

Lissi: ILY, mads ❤

 

As soon as she got the message saying that Lisia had left the conversation, she did the same, but turned her phone all the way off, realizing that it was times like these that would make her learn to appreciate it whenever she did have silence. She had that sweet silence, of course, for about five minutes until she was called down for dinner, her father’s raised voice causing her quickly grab for her headphones and have them shield her from the noise.

“Hey, sweetheart. I know you’re not feeling very well right now, so I just went ahead and put together some ham and cheese sandwiches. Is that okay?”

Madison gave her father a small nod as they both took a seat at the dinner table. It was a rather awkward dinner, with the two of them sitting in silence at a time when both of them would usually be talking about what went on with their days, but Madison needed the silence right now, at least until her sense of hearing was fixed. Afterward, Madison only stopped to clean up after herself before starting to head back up to the quiet of her room. “Bonne nuit, ma cherie,” she heard her father whisper after her.

“Bonne nuit, monsieur.” For the rest of the night, Madison kept herself occupied by studying before going off to unwind with her two Pokémon, an emerald-eyed Jigglypuff and a rose pink Sylveon, who were being accompanied by a can of dusty purple Ditto Putty. She was often times overwhelmed often with pressures of good enough grades to get into her dream school, as well as the mounting pressures of keeping up a positive image as the principal's daughter, but at least she had a de-stress routine for when it all became too much.

Something clicked in her while she was playing with the purple dough while petting her duo of pink Pokémon, as it was now calming her senses to a point where she could actually let her conscious speak without her wanting to go mad. She was returning to the state of mind, at least for a few moments, that told her everything was going to be okay.

That was the case until she realized the effects that Mr. Page's "lessons" were having on her voice. Even in her choir class where the point was to sound good, she couldn't stop messing up the basics. Which, of course, caused everyone to stop and stare at the student who was seen as the unofficial soprano leader after every mistake, which only made her embarrassment escalate.  _Mr. Pelagias is going to be after my head if I can't get this right._ When everyone was released for lunch, quite a number of people seemed to swarm Madison. Most of them were asking her if she was okay, which was when she lied and said she had just been feeling under the weather.

Wallace had already figured that it had something to do with Drama but instead assuming it to be her regular case of overworking herself.  _Still,_ he thought,  _I don't think it's ever gotten this bad before, to the point where she can't even sing her scale properly._ He left himself a mental note as he walked to the teachers' lounge: Ask Lisia to investigate for me.


	4. Chapter 4

Wednesday rolled around and things couldn’t feel more different; She was terrified to even go into the guitar teacher’s room, even as he was simply setting down his things. “I know you told Kathy about your “problems”, girly. Let me tell you, don’t you think even for a second you aren’t gonna get punished for this.”

“How...How did you know about this?” Her tone sounded just as sure as her actual thoughts. Had Lisia betrayed her and snitched behind her back? Had somebody gotten a hold on her texts so far, and then told him, or had they somehow swiped her phone when she was preoccupied.

“My daughter, Emmie told me. She just happened to see your texts and told me all about them. Good thing, too. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you got away scot-free.” If Madison had the strength to mentally facepalm, she would’ve. She should’ve known Emmie had done this; Every time she had gotten involved in these “scandals”, Emmie was always revealed to be behind it, and, since her father was directly involved, there was no question about what was going on anymore.

“What are you going to do to me?” By this point, Madison was practically whimpering for forgiveness and willing to comply with whatever he wanted to do.

“I’m not going to tell you of course, and all I’m going to say is that I’d rather do it in person because I don’t trust you to be alone.” He soon had Madison backed into a corner, with a hand firmly placed on both of her shoulders in case she decided to make any sudden movements. “Let’s just say I’m going to get what I deserve.” His long fingernails were digging and scratching their way up to her neck, and he was careful to silence her as the long, white markings appeared on her arms. When his hands grasped her neck, he was careful to do so with as tight as a grip as possible, so only bursts of unintelligible screeching came out of her, which he at first responded to with a punch to her eye, which also caused her head to forcefully bump against the wall it was pressed to.

In response to the sudden onslaught of pain that was seizing her body, Madison’s legs began to flail and kick against the walls, and her eyes began to drip with tears of desperation as the man before her spoke, his voice growing more and more unnatural with every passing word. “You see? This is what you get for calling me a creep. Not very nice, is it, girly? Now you’re powerless because your daddy isn’t here to save you.” He cooed sadistically at her before finally letting go of her now-aching neck, which in turn caused her to gasp for air. Now that he had brought it up, she had never wanted her father’s help more than she did right now.

He had only let go of her neck in response to a loud knock on his door, which he had the feeling he needed to go answer, pushing Madison further back into the corner and out of the line of sight from the door as he did so.

He dropped the darkness in his tone at the snap of a finger, substituting it for a honeyed voice and a fake smile. “Oh, Principal Sycamore!”

“Is anything going on in here? I thought I heard screaming for a moment, and Gallade had sensed something was off.”

“Well, you see, I was simply trying to teach one of the students a lesson- a voice lesson, I mean.”

“That may explain the screaming, but about the aura-”

“Oh, I’m sure that was just a false alarm. Mistakes happen, even with Pokémon.” The guitar teacher waved his hands and spoke casually as if he was trying to joke about the events that were unfolding in his classroom.

The aforementioned Pokémon, the principal’s Gallade, stepped into the room with its trainer, beginning to look for the source of the aura. The Blade Pokémon didn’t have to search the room for very long, as it could immediately sense the feelings of fear and anxiety that were hidden in the corner of the room. As the Blade Pokémon crouched down to match its gaze to the source, Gallade forced the bruised girl to stand and make eye contact, even though she was hesitant at first. “N-no, Gallade, it’s fine, I’m fine, nothing’s wrong…” Gallade knew this to be a lie, seeing the redness and bruising that was now dotting her body. “These bruises aren’t what they seem like, you know how clumsy I can be sometimes.” She faked a laugh, but it was clear that Gallade wasn’t having any of it.

“Get back in your corner, you little brat!” Mr. Page barked at Madison before deciding to punch her again in the heat of the moment, which sent her flying back into the desk where all of his belongings were piled. After everything had fallen to the floor, the room suddenly fell silent, with Augustine shaking with rage on one side of the room with his daughter shaking in fear on the other.

The principal let the silence sit for a while before he began to speak in the hushed but rough voice that he only reserved for the most major of offenses, though he and his Gallade both looked like they were ready to swing back at the other man at any moment. “I’ll have you know that “brat” is my daughter.”

An instant look of anxiousness and regret appeared on Mr. Page’s face as he began to try and save his own hide. “Oh, sir, I’m so sorry, I had no idea that this was your daughter! Please, forgive me.”

“An apology doesn’t give you the right to physically assault a student, my flesh and blood or not. I’m contacting the authorities to get this straightened out.”  
With Gallade’s help. Madison rose from behind the teacher’s desk, trying to regain her balance and not make the property damage even worse.

“No, sir, wait!” As soon as she had gotten both men’s attention, Madison began to stutter and slur her words, looking for the proper way to express her feelings. “Y-you sh-sh-shouldn’t call the p-p-p-police. He worked so hard to get me this role, If-if I just hadn’t told Lisia what was g-g-going on, this never would’ve happened, it’s all my fault. I’m sorry, sirs.” She could see a smile of approval on Mr. Page’s face, which caused her to want to smile back. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

Augustine walked over to his daughter and wrapped an affectionate arm around her as he spoke. “Ma chérie, he beat you right in front of my own eyes, and you expect me to believe that it was your fault?”

“Yes, sir, because it was.”

“Sweetie, you told Lisia so she could get help for you…”

“I shouldn't have asked for her help, I never should’ve even told her what was going on. So it really is my fault.”

Augustine looked back at the man, who was now hidden away in a corner on the other side of the room and was willing to do whatever it took for any answers he could get his hands on. “How much did you do to her? How far did you have to go to bend her to your will enough to get her so desperate that she’d work with an abusive maniac like you?” Augustine was on the verge of tears now, walking back to his daughter and holding onto her, his embrace seeming like he’d never let go of her again.

“It wasn’t that difficult, I already knew she was desperate. All I had to do was make her sing horribly, with a few secret bonuses thrown in for my pleasure.”

“What did you do to her?”

“It was nothing, really, I only had my Misdreavus give her a lesson; All she had to do was sing awfully the first time and the punishment would’ve stopped.”

So, after the principal safely got his daughter tucked safely away in the passenger's seat of their car, the punishments did stop. Mr. Page was put on an indefinite suspension, Mr. Pelagias rightfully returned to his position as the drama club’s music director, and, with a good helping of vocal training, Madison was able to return her voice to her standard and the show went off with great reviews; Especially when it concerned the pleasant surprise of Lina Lamont’s beautiful voice.


End file.
